Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Parker Palmer offers a songthat can appeal to both religious and non-religious people. Scroll
down to the lyrics of Sara Thomsen with the guitar.

I cried when watching this next video.

A young Arab-American sets himself up across the street from a Trump
Tower, blindfolded with a sign saying that he trusts passersby, inviting them
to give him a hug. Nothing happens for a while, and then . . .

Don’t we all love newscasts of people being exceptionally generous
during this
season? Don't we love stories of spreading love and cheer?

I do. I think we all need
these stories even more because of
growing secularism with its despicable focus on buying stuff to stuff people
who already are stuffed with stuff.

Spiritual values during the Christmas season provide relief from
mandatory gift-giving and ferocious consumerism. And there’s more to our love of this season.

As a fan of mythologist Joseph Campbell, I found innumerable myths
around the world like the Jesus story, all telling of transformation. In the
northern hemisphere, the winter solstice engendered sun gods.

The Roman Sol Invictus (“Unconquered Sun”) was
seen by Christian leaders as a powerful rival of Jesus Christ. To counter the popular
birthday celebrations on the winter solstice in honor of Sol Invictus, Christian leaders declared Jesus Christ the real sun god and the winter solstice his birthday. Despite
some calendar adjustments since then, the feast of Christmas does not fall
exactly on the solstice.

No historian claims to have the slightest idea when Jesus of
Nazareth was born. It would be good for Christians to know the history
behind their birthday celebrations for baby Jesus.

Joseph Campbell and other authors place Jesus in the context of
many Christ-figures. At first, this seems to discredit our Christian story,
demoting it from history to myth. But we have to realize it’s not a demotion.
Religious myths contain honorable symbolism disclosing the spiritual Source
beneath outer phenomena. Gods and goddesses should not be seen as rivals, but
as enriching the myth of Christ. They are alternative Christ-figures.

Mythologists reveal example after example of pagan deities
prefiguring the Christian God-image. In Egypt the main God-image was Isis, the
Great Mother, and her child was Horus. When Christianity pushed out other
religions in the third and fourth centuries, figures of Isis with Horus on her
lap were conveniently renamed “Mary with Jesus.” In this way was retained the
popular Mother-with-Child motif, one that strikes strong chords of sympathy in
the human breast, whatever one’s feelings about religion. Thus the appeal of
Christmas.

Welcome

Interested in religions and spirituality? You've come to the right place.

In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet says, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,/ Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” This is a two-edged challenge. It invites believers to rethink their dogmas, and it challenges people without faith to rethink their certainty that everything religious is bunk.